Brussels, 08/07/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 8 July, the Court of Auditors published a mixed report on the effectiveness of information provision and promotion measures for agricultural products, and on the lawfulness of the expenditure. The Court found that the impact of the policy was currently “difficult to quantify” and that monitoring of the implementation of the programmes still had to be improved, in particular in Spain and Italy (practice is much better in France, the audit said).
The EU has been conducting and co-financing promotional activities for agricultural products since the start of the 1980s. Until 1999, these were carried out sector by sector. Then, in 1999, arrangements were harmonised and replaced by two regulations (promotion in third countries and promotion in the internal market). These two regulations were merged through regulation 3/2008 at the start of 2008, so that the policy for the promotion of agricultural products was brought under a single regulation without any significant alteration being made to the substance of the previous two texts. Programmes generally receive 50% funding from the European Union, with the remainder coming from the professional and inter-professional organisations that proposed the programmes (minimum 20%) and the member states concerned. The annual budget provision for these programmes has increased massively over the last few years, rising from €17 million in 2002 to €50 million from 2007.
The main conclusions of the Court of Auditors were:
1) The Commission has for some years been making improvements to the management and control arrangements for expenditure connected with information provision and promotion measures for agricultural products. Through this process, positive results have already been obtained in some areas but it still needs to be further consolidated and expanded; 2) the system in place does not make it possible to gauge the effectiveness of this policy. The impact of the policy, although it is probably positive, is currently difficult to quantify; 3) the Commission has become more selective when approving programmes to be co-financed. These improvements should be continued, especially as regards the requirement for information on the expected impact of the programme and the manner in which it will be measured. The member states should also continue to increase their selectivity; 4) as regards the implementation of the programmes and the lawfulness of the expenditure, efforts should primarily be focused on the still too limited checks made on the selection of the implementing bodies, which have a key role to play. The Commission's subsequent monitoring of expenditure has been stepped up, but significant control weaknesses persist in certain member states. These weaknesses should be followed up so as to ensure speedy improvement in these shortcomings.
The Commission is currently making a thorough review of this scheme. This could in particular lead to a proposal to significantly increase the information and promotion budget. For that reason, the Court recommends that these improvements be made as soon as possible. (L.C./transl.rt)